"I have been depressed in listening in the last 24 hours when people say, 'Don't compromise,' " she said of the election. "Democracy is about compromise — that's what it's about."

Albright, the nation's first female secretary of State, was in Sioux Falls on Thursday to speak with Augustana College students and give the address at the college's prestigious Boe Forum. In her speech and in an interview with the Argus Leader, she shared her views on a wide range of topics including:

• The ascent of women to positions of leadership in politics and business.

• The role of the media in providing facts to Americans.

• The fierce debate over a planned Islamic Center in New York City.

Tuesday's election marked some success by conservatives who identify with the Tea Party movement, and Albright said it remains to be seen how their influence might shape domestic and foreign policy.

"They haven't really spoken out that much about foreign policy, and I think we're going to have to wait to see, but I hope that there's not an undercutting of the role that the United States has to play in the world," she said in an interview. "The world needs America to not dominate it, but participate in it."

Albright was named secretary of State in 1997. At the time, she was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government, Augustana President Rob Oliver noted while introducing her at the forum.

She was asked about South Dakota's recent congressional race, which featured two women for the first time in the state's history.

"Societies are better off when women are politically and economically empowered," she said.

Her own appointment as secretary of State sent a message around the world about the role of women in global politics. It also marked a path for future secretaries Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.

That recent history of female secretaries is not lost on her granddaughter, Albright said during the interview.

"A big fuss is always made about the fact that I was the first woman secretary of State," Albright said. "But my youngest granddaughter, when she turned 7 last year, said to her mother, 'So what's the big deal about Grandma Maddie having been secretary of State? Only girls are secretary of State.' "

"I believe that old women and young women have to interrupt," she said. "I have sat in many meetings and thought that I might say something and then I think, 'Oops, too stupid, I don't think I'll say that.' Then some man says it; everybody thinks it's brilliant."

That story and others were met with laughter during her speech Thursday night. At several other points, she was given loud applause.

"She was charming and personable and intelligent," said Heather Bart, an Augustana professor of communication studies who has done research on Albright's career and had dinner with her Thursday.

In the interview, Albright was asked about some recent controversies facing the nation, including the planned Islamic center and mosque in New York City. She recalled discussing the topic while gathered with a group of former foreign ministers with whom she keeps in touch. They were surprised at the fierce debate over the issue that was ongoing at the time, she recalls.

The debate, she said, "was a discussion that seemed to kind of spin out of control over an issue that shouldn't have been an issue," she said. "It's up to the people of New York to make this decision."

Albright, a former reporter at the tiny Rolla Daily News in Missouri, also expressed concerns about the media's role in democracy. "It's very hard to get at what are really the facts, and there's an awful lot of opinion, and it's hard for people to really know what's going on," she said.

During her time at the Missouri newspaper, she was paid $35 a week to write stories, take classified ads and do the social page, among other tasks. "It was great; I loved it," she said.

She also recalled her time as news editor for her college paper at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. One day Albright was covering John Kennedy, who was running for senator, and couldn't resist asking him for an autograph.

"I knew this was very unprofessional for a reporter to go and ask for his autograph," she recalled, "but I did that, and so I've got John Kennedy's autograph."

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